


sweet creature

by wallywallywallflower



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Fluff, Reylo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-20 12:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13717458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wallywallywallflower/pseuds/wallywallywallflower
Summary: He had never connected with a person before like he had with Rey, and their teacher-student relationship had blossomed into a friendship that even he couldn’t ruin.... So when she waddled into lecture on the first day of class in early September with a near-full term pregnant stomach, to say he was taken aback is a severe understatement.aka I wanted to write a happy something with a happy Ben Solo and a badass-mom Rey plus a baby.





	sweet creature

**Author's Note:**

> soooo this is purely an experimental piece, and un-beta'd because I can’t scrutinize my own work for incorrect grammar or what have you, and I severely need a beta. please don’t judge it too hard, seeing as how I’m probably going to rewrite it. just wanting some constructive criticism and thoughts!
> 
> but yes, enjoy this weird mix of au, fluff and slight angst with a redeemed Professor Solo that deserves everything good in life. 
> 
> title is based off the Harry Styles song!

His morning had been going according to his routine. He woke at six o'clock sharp, went for his morning his jog to his specially-crafted playlist with a good breeze to counteract the humidity from the mid-October of southern California, the proceeded to get showered and dressed for the day. His spirits were unusually high for it being a weekday, which he had attributed to the combination of a rare good night's sleep, his morning cup of coffee, and the fact that he was up-to-date on grading papers. However peculiar it may be, Professor Ben Solo welcomed the notion as he adjusted the bow tie he had opted for that morning to match his mood and briskly set off to tackle the day. 

•

It wasn’t until he had walked into his office that day did he realize that his good spirits were subconsciously in-sync with the return of one of his favorite students. Rey Niima had quickly proven herself to be a hardworking and efficient student last year when she had first entered his introductory Creative Writing course in the fall. Seeing as how the University of Naboo was a rather small, private liberal arts college, Ben had been appointed as the department head of the Creative Writing program, and therefore taught most of the classes for the area of study. This meaning, the young professor had enjoyed the company of Rey's intellect and yellow personality for two semesters and a brief summer session to aide her focus in fiction. Normally, Ben wouldn’t be so generous with his summer vacation time, but spending the one-on-one time with her came at no cost to him. He had never connected with a person before like he had with Rey, and their teacher-student relationship had blossomed into a friendship that even *he* couldn’t ruin. 

She had spent the rest of the summer holed up in her job, picking up as many shifts as she could left and right, or at least that is what she communicated to him through their emails. For three months, he had gone without hearing her scold him in her accented vernacular or seeing the quirk of her lips as she grinned at something clever he had said. Her emails became far and few in-between as she somehow picked up another job, and she soon stopped replying all together. Ben's concerns were only alleviated when he saw her name on his student list he had received from the university two weeks later. 

 

So when she waddled into lecture on the first day of class in early September with a near-full term pregnant stomach, to say he was taken aback is a severe understatement. He could barely focus as he presented the course syllabus, and raced so uncharacteristically through it that it left the students with forty-five minutes of leisure before the hour ended. He spent thirty-four of those minutes with his eyes boring into the wall as he configured the situation of his beloved student in his head. He thought it almost impossible that she could be this far along for having seen her three months ago, when she should have been on or nearing her six month of pregnancy. Surely she should have been showing by that point, right? However, the more he thought on it, he realized that Rey had been sporting hoodies and considerably baggy clothes for the damn-near deathly humidity of the summer season. Her cheeks had been a bit fuller as well. 

His thoughts had wondered to who could have fathered the unborn child; Rey had seemed to busy to keep up a relationship. He briefly considered the Finn character she hung around, before remembering that he was exclusively involved with one of his poetry students, Rose Tico. Perhaps it had been a fling then, or a one night stand, though both seemed uncharacteristic for Rey. 

The train of thoughts that had been occupying him were interrupted by the clearing of a throat. 

"Professor Solo."

"Rey. How have you been?" The formality of the statement almost made him cringe. 

"Well, a bit occupied, as you can probably notice." Rey thumbed at a loose thread on her sweater and couldn’t seem to bring herself to look at him.

“Yes, I see.” An unspoken why didn’t you tell me? sat uncomfortably between them. “Look, Rey—“

“I know. I should’ve told you. I just... I didn’t know how. I was scared you would see me as just another irresponsible basket case and I couldn’t handle—“

“Rey, stop. It’s okay. This doesn’t change anything.” It hurt him to think that Rey had been so troubled about his reaction that she couldn’t tell him, but he was well aware of his preceding reputation of the anguished temper that used to consume him. “So... are congratulations in order?”

The hesitant question brought a shift in Rey’s facial expression. Her worried look shifted into a warm smile as she briefly glanced down at the mass occupying her middle.

“Oh, yes. Most definitely now. At the beginning of this all, I was very... sad, I suppose. I was going to give her up, but when I found out her gender, I just knew I couldn’t do that. It felt like some sort of betrayal, to myself and to her. I couldn’t fathom the idea of her being in the system like I was, wondering and waiting for some kind of absolution that I’m supposed to be giving her. That kind of pain, invalidation... it’s something I could never, ever wish upon anyone.”

Rey had become emotional; her eyes were glossed over with unshed moisture that betrayed the steadiness in her voice.

Before she could say anything else, Ben sent her a warm look, a rare smile resting in lips.

“You’re very brave, Rey. Braver than I and many others would be.” He cleared his throat. “So, it’s a girl then?”

Rey beamed at that, her eyes glancing briefly downwards before coming back to him. 

•••

She had been pretty far along into her pregnancy, so she and Ben had discussed what would become of her course load. Ben was quick to accommodate to her, probably quicker than he would have been with other students, though he wouldn’t admit it. It was rather simple, a tactic that one of his former professors had used on him when he had been going through a rough patch during his third year. The detailed syllabus he prepared had canvased out all the assignments for the semester. He told her that it didn’t matter when he received the work (he was always rather lenient with due dates anyhow), as long as he had it all before the semester was over. This included all exams, papers, and what have you. He gave her his phone number, and told her to reach out to him if she needed anything, even if the request went beyond the classroom. Rey had been grateful, and reassured him that she would be on top of her assignments. He had smiled wordlessly back at her, a rare moment of being wholly content. 

She hadn’t been in class that Friday, which came to no surprise but worried him all the same. He had been uncharacteristically clammy throughout his lecture, and apparently his nervous energy was enough to irk Rose Tico to ask him if he was okay after he had finished speaking. 

It wasn’t until later that evening, at around eleven or so, that he had been rest assured of his worries. His phone vibrated twice, and when he opened the messages he was met with the image of a pink-faced infant adorned in a tiny lavender hat with the simple caption *"Austen Niima.*"

•••

The six weeks of maternity leave that Rey was granted had gone by quicker than he thought. Perhaps it was due to the fact that this time around, her absence was accompanied by regular text conversations between the two of them. She would ask him questions from the assigned readings, which would lead to discussion, which would somehow derail into lighthearted chatter regarding Austen. Though he had yet to meet the new object of Rey's unbridled affections, he felt like he knew the baby like the back of his hand. Rey liked to inform Ben of all her new child's latest milestones, no matter how minor or coincidental they were. He was just happy to see her so enthralled, and was curious to see if any of this made its way into her writing. Motherhood suited Rey well, even if she was at a tender age herself. 

•••

He had sent Rey a good morning text when he arrived to his lecture room half an hour early and proceeded to adjust his bow tie around seven times before his students began wandering into the room. Anxiously, he set up his presentation for that day on the projector and pretended that he wasn’t watching for a particular individual that liked to sport three hair buns and a skip in her step. Minutes passed, Ben checked his phone, then checked it again, and the lack of response made him think that maybe she wouldn’t show. 

However, it was less than a minute until class officially started (not that he had been counting) when Rey stumbled into the door, literally stumbled, breathless, with her bag halfway on her shoulders, and a *baby carrier in her grasp.*

The signs of early motherhood were clearly evident on her face, along with her embarrassment. Her under eyes were a deep shade of purple and puffed from lack of sleep. Half of her hair was pulled up from her face and the rest was left astray. There was a stain on her shirt that looked like the remnants of spit up. 

Ben didn’t understand how she managed to remain so graceful among the apparent chaos of her entrance. Or maybe his judgement was just severely clouded. 

She attempted to regain her composure approached his desk in quick stride. "Be—Professor Solo, I am so terribly sorry about this, but my sitter bailed on me and all the daycares are filled and I just didn’t know what else to do. I’m so sorry! I swear, she should stay quiet—"

"Rey, Rey! It’s all right," Ben interrupted before the distraught in Rey's voice could grow any more. "No worries. Just a lecture and a quiz after for today. Nothing to be distressed over. Austen's presence isn’t at any inconvenience to me." 

Rey gave him a half-smile, still obviously scatterbrained from the apparent stress of her morning. Ben knew her too well. 

"I'm still sorry. I wish you were meeting her under better circumstances," Rey expressed as she nodded down towards the carrier. Ben couldn’t see the baby with the sun-guard up, but the sentiment was all the same. 

"It’s all the same to me," Ben mused, a smirk tugging on his lips. "I think Austen would agree herself." 

Rey said nothing, instead rolling her eyes before turning around to take her seat. 

••• 

Ben made it through the lecture smoothly and without incident. Austen managed to stay radio silent, even through the chatter of discussion regarding the material presented. Rey made it clearly evident that she had been keeping up with the course work while on her leave of absence, jumping right back into intelligent talks like she hadn’t ever left. 

After passing out their quizzes, he had returned to his desk to mark up some student writings, and about five minutes in, the silence was startled by the sudden cry of infant. The sound even managed to catch Ben off guard, dropping his pen on his desk before he regained his composure. 

He watched as Rey quickly leaned down from her desk to try and console her unhappy daughter, who seemed to get even more angry the more her mother tried to quell her. A few second felt like hours with the cries echoing through the room, and Ben could see the frustration growing in Rey's expression as her efforts were proving to be worthless. Before he could think it through, Ben was out of his desk and stalking across the room to examine the source of the discomfort. 

"Ben, Ben, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what's wrong with her, I don’t—" 

"Let me take her."

Ben's words managed to surprise both Rey and himself equally. 

"You're sure? I can just—"

"I can handle her for a few minutes while you finish up. I’ve held babies before, Rey." It wasn’t a complete lie. He had held his "Uncle" Lando's baby son for all of ten seconds before the child had barfed its breakfast all over his sweater. But Rey didn’t know that, and he didn’t have much time to contemplate or change his mind before she was unlatching the buckles of the carrier and gently handing him this very tiny, warm, very pissed off red-faced extension of herself. His right hand immediately went to support the weeks-old baby's head, and the left one held her secure against his chest. Austen went quiet almost immediately, and instead made less angry cooing sounds as she began to calm down from her episode. His surprise must’ve been evident on his face, as he heard the familiar snickers of his student and when he met eyes with eyes Rey, who looked humored herself. 

He looked to rest of his students, who were all still lamenting in their amusement as he also focused on not dropping the incredibly fragile human being in his arms. 

"I swear, if any of you breathes a word of this to Professor Hux, I will fail you and see to your removal from this university."

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!! please let me know what you think, and if you would like me to continue this. like I said earlier, I’m in need of a beta, so if your interested please let me know as your help would be greatly appreciated!


End file.
